Samuel Palmer, 19 Crosby Row, Walworth, to John Rippon, Friday morning, July 1796.

Reverend Sir

         I thank you for your kindness in putting such a letter into my hands;[1] I have read it carefully once through & reviewed the different marks or qualifications a candidate for the ministry should possess; my conformity to the same I must leave to the jud^g^ment of those who have watched my conduct narrowly. Solomon saith “Dead flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour, so doth a little folly, him that hath been had in reputation for wisdom & honor”: and when the enemies of religion discover a mi^s^deed in a professor, they (according to what you remarked I think last Sabbath) will magnify it abundantly. God is about my path & about my bed, & spieth out all my ways, and unto him I must appeal for the conformity of my motives to his righteous approbation, praying unto him that if they are base, to root out of my mind the desire of so awful a concern an employ. In the sixth evening among the minutes I see it was desired of Mr Fuller that he would print his sermon on “the importance of a deep & intimate knowledge of divine truth”[2]; this Gentleman’s ideas are so very striking from what few sermons I have heard him preach, that I should like to have the above if it is to be purchased. From your kind invitation, shall take the liberty of calling again some Thursday evening.

                     I remain

                                 Revd Sir

                                             Your sincere friend,

                                                         Samuel Palmer.

19 Crosby Row (Walworth)

Friday morning.

Address: Doctor Rippon –

[in Rippon’s hand beneath is written “Samuel Palmer, Walworth ^July 96^]

Notes

[1] Palmer is referring here to the Circular Letter of the Northamptonshire Association of Baptist Churches, which met from 31 May-2 June 1796 at St. Albans. The title of the Letter was The Duty of Churches respecting the Encouragement of Spiritual Gifts, a topic most apropos to Palmer who was already considering becoming a Baptist minister as early as 1796. He would not be officially set apart until 1809, during his time as a member and deacon at the Baptist meeting in East Street.

[2] Reference here is to Andrew Fuller’s sermon, which he preached at the Association meeting that June, titled The Importance of a Deep and Intimate Knowledge of Divine Truth. A Sermon delivered at an Association of Baptist Ministers, and Churches, at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on June 1, 1796. . . . Published at the Request of those who heard it. N.B. the Profits will be given to the Association Fund, which is principally applied to the Encouragement of Village Preaching (London: Sold by W. Button, Paternoster Row, and T. Gardiner, Princes-Street, Oxford-Street, [1796]). 

Text: John Rippon Letters, British Library, vol. 3, Add. MS. 25388, fols 194-95.